Wall Street ends April at record highs as earnings beat estimates

Wall Street ended April with a split-screen market: stocks pushed to records while oil lurched higher on fear that the war in Iran could choke off crude flows for longer than investors want to believe. The S&P 500 rose 1% and finished above its previous all-time high, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 790 points, or 1.6%, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.9% to close at a record.

The broader message from the month was even more striking. The S&P 500 gained about 10% in April, its best month since November 2020, and the Nasdaq surged roughly 15.3%, its strongest monthly advance since April 2020. For now, investors are treating the latest spike in energy prices as a problem for another day, and leaning instead on a flood of corporate results that keep beating Wall Street’s expectations.

Alphabet was the clearest example. The stock climbed 10% after the company reported quarterly profit that nearly doubled analysts’ expectations. Chief executive Sundar Pichai said Alphabet’s AI push and “full-stack approach” were “lighting up every part of the business.” Google Cloud topped $20 billion in revenue in the first quarter and grew 63% from a year earlier, while Alphabet raised its 2026 capital expenditure guidance to as much as $190 billion. That spending plan reinforced the view that Big Tech still has enough cash flow and confidence to keep investing aggressively.

Other earnings reports added to the momentum. Caterpillar said it delivered a strong start to the year, helped by resilient end markets and disciplined execution, and Eli Lilly posted first-quarter earnings of $8.55 a share, far above the $6.97 expected by analysts, on revenue of $19.80 billion versus $17.82 billion. O’Reilly Automotive also joined the list of companies whose results helped drive fresh buying across the market.

Oil was telling a very different story. Brent crude for July delivery climbed to $114.70 a barrel overnight and a less actively traded June contract briefly surged above $126 before pulling back to around $110.40. The jump reflected mounting concern that the Strait of Hormuz, the critical passage out of the Persian Gulf, could remain disrupted as tankers and exports stay constrained.

That tension leaves markets at a familiar crossroads. Equities are being carried by earnings strength, especially in technology and industrial names, but the oil shock is a reminder that geopolitical risk can still turn quickly into a broader inflation and growth threat if energy prices stay elevated. For the moment, investors are choosing optimism. The next test is whether that confidence can survive another violent move in crude.